The Consequences of Prophecy-Dream Weddings & The Ballad of the Shepherd

Song of Songs is a prophetic musical King Solomon composed as a way of expressing the way that Jerusalem had turned from its initial monogamous worship of God and now began to worship other imported deities introduced by Solomon’s many foreign wives. The Shulamite, who represented Israel, had already begun flirting with the concept of being just another wife of Solomon’s, but also had visions of what life with her childhood sweetheart would have been like if she chose him instead.

The Second Act opens with the Shulamite waking up from a dream which she describes for the audience.

She looks for her Love in the middle of the night but cannot find him. She is no longer in the countryside she grew up in alongside her Beloved, but in the city. She searches the alleys and the major streets but is unable to find him. She even goes to the city’s night watchmen to ask if they have seen “him whom [her] soul loveth”, but they do not know this small town country boy who is a foreign stranger in this big city (ref. Song 3: 1-3).

After asking the night watch, she finally finds her Love. She holds him tightly and won’t let him go, until she brings him back to the countryside, to her mother’s house and her mother’s room (ref. Song 3:4).

While the Shulamite and her Beloved are back in their hometown in her mother’s home, a grand procession begins.

Again, in contrast with her Love who is described with rural environmental scenery, King Solomon has all the trappings and finery that you would expect of royalty.

Solomon comes out of the wilderness like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the foreign spices of the merchant. Unlike her humble shepherd Love who bounds through the pastures and mountains amongst his flocks, Solomon rides upon a carriage or sedan and is even escorted by sixty body guards! They are the noblest in Israel, all of them wearing a sword at their sides, ready to use their experience in battle to face the terrors of the night. Solomon’s carriage is made from Lebanese cedar, its posts are made of silver and its base of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple and the interior is inlaid with love for the Daughter of Jerusalem (ref. Songs 3:5-10).

These Daughters of Jerusalem are called to come out and look upon Solomon in all his glory. He is crowned with the diadem that his mother gave him on the day of his first wedding, the day his heart rejoiced (ref. Songs 3:11).

While the whole town is amazed by King Solomon’s arrival, the Shulamite’s Love can’t take his eyes off of her.

He declares his love for her, but the simple country boy can only wax poetic with the words his life as a shepherd has granted him.

He describes her hair as “like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead”, her “teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing” each having a twin. Her cheeks or temples are like a piece of pomegranate behind her locks of hair. Though he does not live in Jerusalem, he is an observant Jew who goes for the required feasts. The scarlet ribbon/strand tied around the scapegoat on Yom Kippur is used to describe her luscious lips and her neck reminds him of the famous Tower of David, which he would see as he entered Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate. He playfully describes her perky breasts as twin fawns of a gazelle that he had seen prancing through the lilies he had seen while grazing his flocks amongst the lilies.

While expressing his love for her, he recalls the farthest reaches of his journeys, and focuses on the rocky mountainous regions his flocks would have to travail to find fresh pastures. Starting in craggy Lebanon, they descend from the crest of Amana, the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, crossing the caves that hide lion’s dens and the mountainous haunts of leopards (ref. Song 4:8).

The Shepherd declares that she has stolen his heart, calling her his sister/beloved and bride several times heavily implying that they are in the middle of a wedding scene (ref. Song 4:8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

The Shepherd again uses natural imagery to describe Her Love as more pleasing than wine, her scent better than any of the foreign spices Solomon’s caravan reeks of. Her lips sweeter than honeycomb, her kisses like honey and milk. She smells of the countryside of Lebanon which he loves (ref. Song 4:10-11).

Her virginity is a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. The man who wins her heart will be lavished with the greatest natural wonders: succulent pomegranates, sensuous scents of henna and spikenard, saffron, calamus and cinnamon, incense, myrrh, aloes and the finest spices. Ultimately she is life giving and nurturing, a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from the countryside (ref. Song 4:12-15).

The Shulamite takes joy in being his Bride, asking for the North and South Winds to spread her fragrance everywhere. She is ready for her Beloved to come into her garden and taste of its choice fruits, a poetic description of their first night as Husband and Wife (ref. Song 4:16).

After their first intimate encounter after the marriage ceremony, her Love declares that He has come into his garden, again describing her as his sister, beloved and bride. He has gathered his myrrh and spices, eaten his honeycomb and honey and drunk his wine and milk (ref. Song 5:1)

The wedding attendants declare:

Eat, friends, and drink;
Drink your fill of love.

But it was all a dream.

In reality, she is in Jerusalem. She decided to accept Solomon’s engagement and left her small country town and her shepherd love.

And now she is beginning to regret her decision.

Act Two begins with the Shulamite dreaming of trying to find her love after she’s made the horrible decision to go to Jerusalem to marry Solomon. She ultimately finds him searching for her as well and they rush back to her mother’s home to ask for her blessing to be married. Solomon returns looking for his bride to be, but the Shepherd’s simple natural words of love win her over. They marry and consummate their love as their friends and family celebrate, but she wakes up only to realize that she is still in Solomon’s mansion waiting for their wedding day.

For all his wealth and many wives, King Solomon missed out on one of the greatest joys of life: rejoicing in the wife of your youth, captivated by her love forever (ref. Proverbs 5:18-19). Solomon had been excited during his first wedding day, still wearing the crown that his mother placed on his head, but the marriage was not built on a long standing relationship with deep mutual love for each other, so he was unsatisfied and sought others to fulfill his desires. Ultimately, he was left empty, constantly looking for that new excitement from a novel affair. This bled into his relationship with God and explains why he ended up building temples to satisfy the desires of priestess princesses.

While Jerusalem became more metropolitan and focused on the material benefits of trade with their foreign neighbors, Solomon writes through the voice of the Shepherd to declare that the natural gifts that God had bestowed upon Israel were greater than anything their neighbors could compare. At this point in his reign Solomon has been able to see that turning back towards the God of his father David and Israel’s foundation was the correct thing for him to do as a leader. But would the rest of the country turn their hearts back toward the Love of their youth?

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

The Consequences of Prophecy-The Love Triangle & The Girl Next Door

Before Israel split into two kingdoms, due in part to the introduction of a new national center of worship in the Northern Kingdom, there were signs that Israel was already culturally destabilizing internally due to the introduction of strange gods by King Solomon’s foreign wives. Following in his father King David’s melodious footsteps, King Solomon wrote a play centered on the young country girl whom he had watched nurse his dying father. The Shulamite, symbolized by Israel, was tempted by the lavish riches and power of King Solomon and the new multi-cultural, religiously diverse city of Jerusalem his foreign wives had created, but her heart still longed for the True Shepherd who had loved her since her youth. Would Israel be a nation tenderly and faithfully married to the God of its inception or a quickly forgotten people amongst a harem of others, which had bound themselves to idolatry?

While much of the Song of Songs is told from the view of the Shulamite, after King Solomon has taken the throne, she was introduced earlier during King David’s final days. Having trouble taking care of himself and staying warm, even when covered with blankets, the king’s attendants put out a search for a young virgin to take care of him and keep him comfortable to help him sleep. After searching throughout Israel for a beautiful young woman, they found Abishag, the Shunammite (strongly suggested to be synonymous with Shulamite). Abishag took care of King David in his dying days, but they never had sexual relations (ref. 1 Kings 1:1-4).

After the power struggle for the thrown before King David’s death, Solomon came out crowned king, but granted mercy on his older brother Adonijah who had also been positioning himself for power (ref. 1 Kings 1: 5-53). After King Solomon began to establish his administration, Adonijah went to Solomon’s mother Bathsheba to make a request. In Adonijah’s eyes, because the kingdom had been his and all of Israel had looked to him as their king before the Lord gave it to Solomon, it would only be fair that Adonijah be allowed to marry the beautiful Abishag. But King Solomon did not see this as a simple nor reasonable request, explicitly equating marriage to Abishag as asking for the Kingdom itself (1 Kings 2:22). This symbolic insult was so great to Solomon that he revoked the protection he had placed on Adonijah and had him executed (ref. 1 King 2:13-25).

When Song of Songs begins, several years have already passed and the Shulamite (most likely the fought over Abishag) has returned home to the countryside and has just been re-introduced to Solomon, who is there inspecting the tree nut harvest, whom she hadn’t seen since her time in the royal palace looking after his father King David. Looking upon handsome King Solomon she remarks “No wonder the maidens adore you”, and after her initial infatuation, quickly ads “take me away with you- let us hurry! May the King bring me to his chambers” (Songs 1: 1-4).

She has lost the pale skin of her days in the palace walls from Solomon’s memory and has developed a farmer’s tan, which she is initially embarrassed about (ref. Songs 1:5-6), then rapidly remembers her shepherd boyfriend who loves her, burned skin and all, asking the Chorus where he is and where has he pastured his flocks (Songs 1: 7-8). The Chorus explains that while the king is right in front of her, her Love can be found tending to the young goats if she follows the tracks of the flock to the tents of his fellow shepherds.

Because of his royal background, Solomon flirts by describing the Shulamite through the luxuries and fine things available to him such as comparing her to “a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots”, describing her freckles as ornaments and her neck as strung with jewels. Trying to further convince her to go with Solomon, the Chorus declares they will make her ornaments of gold, studded with beads of silver, luxuries her shepherd love could not readily provide.

She begins to compare her Love to King Solomon, explaining that “While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance”, poetically explaining that while the king at the palace hearing about her beauty, her love had been beside her all along. Their love is not full of palatial extravagances, but described through the natural beauty around them. Their bed chamber is lined with the trees of the forest and the soft grass is their bed (ref. Song 1:12-17). She describes herself as her Love does, in floral terms, as “a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley”.

She also describes her Love in terms of their countryside scenery. He is “an apricot tree amongst the trees of the forest”, and he “sustains [her] with raisins; [refreshes her] with apples”. When her Love comes back from shepherding, he is like his sheep and goats “leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills”. He is handsome and graceful “like a gazelle or a young stag” (ref. Song 2:1-9). Her love calls for her to stay in the countryside with her since “the flowers have appeared”, “the season of singing has come”, “the cooing of turtledoves is heard in [their] land”, and “the fig tree has ripened and blossoming vines are spreading their fragrance”, it is the season of love they had been waiting for. He longs to see his “dove in the clefts of the rock” only wanting to see her face and hear her sweet voice. Unlike the king, the Shepherd wants to know her rather than just her body (ref. Song 2:10-14).

At this point in Solomon’s reign, he already had “sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number” (Songs 6:8). He ultimately ruled for forty years and had “seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines” who would eventually lead him astray and turned his heart towards worshipping idols, since his soul was not fully devoted to the Lord His God (ref. 1 Kings 11:3-4). If each new romantic conquest took about two weeks total from courtship, marriage, and honeymoon, before moving onto a new obsession, Solomon’s exclusive focus on her body and pushing to take her to his bedchamber immediately begins to put into question flawed theories that she was his One True Love or even that the role of the Kingly Casanova represents Christ.

“Catch for us the foxes-
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards-
for our vineyards are in bloom.”

The Chorus helps further understand the distinction between Solomon and the Shepherd, poetically describing King Solomon as a fox intent on scaling the vineyard’s walls to revel on the ripening fruit of the young maidens’ maturing bodies. The implication that he is ruining the vineyards, infamously insinuates that Solomon is only after their virginity before making them a forgotten member of his expanding harem (ref. Song 2:15)

But her beloved does not seek to collect notches on his bedpost. He is hers, and she is his. He is kind and thoughtful, making sure his flock has all that they need. Before the sun rises and he has to leave, she asks him to gently nuzzle and kiss her (ref. Song 2:16-17).

As he saw his capital city Jerusalem develop extreme wealth and prestige, Solomon began to compare this new metropolis with the nation his father, initially a shepherd, loved. King Solomon refused to give Abishag, the Shunammite/Shulamite who he considered represented Israel, to his older brother Adonijah, but did not marry her himself, but instead begun to develop a taste for multiple foreign wives and started to indulge in their idolatry during the timing of Song of Songs. This was in direct contrast to the singular love King David had for God, which was mirrored by the Shulamite and her Shepherd Love. The First Act shows that while she and Israel were tempted by Solomon’s advances and the wealth, prestige, and idolatry he then represented, they were still loyal to their First Love.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

The Consequences of Prophecy-The Prostitute & The Prophet

Our God is infinite and His Creativity is beyond comprehension, so when He desires to communicate with His People, we cannot always anticipate in what novel ways He will connect with us. The Art of Prophecy is not limited to the written or spoken word and sometimes He shadows His Messages through the lives and families of His Prophets.

The nearly sixty years Hosea served as a prophet were marked by Israel’s kings in particular, not only introducing, but encouraging the worship of the gods of their neighboring nations. God wanted His Prophet Hosea to have a deep understanding of the anger and frustration that He experienced watching Israel turn from righteous worship towards filthy idolatry, which He compared to adultery. So, God commanded Prophet Hosea to “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her” because Israel had been acting like an adulterous wife and had been unfaithful to the Lord (ref. Hosea 1:1-2).

While Prophet Hosea could have chosen a woman who had been accused of infidelity or was of questionable character, He married a woman named Gomer who was the daughter of Diblaim. Gomer may have been a type of “stage/performer name” since it translates to “complete” or “finish” possibly alluding to the end of a sexual encounter. Gomer’s father’s name also requires scrutiny since it means “double cakes” and may have served twofold as a sort of “pimp name” and price advertisement, since fig/date/raisin cakes were common sacrifices offered to idols in the region (ref. Hosea 3:1) and may have been a form of payment for sexual services with temple priestesses/prostitutes. So Prophet Hosea was faithful to God’s command and married Gomer who was most likely a temple prostitute and the literal manifestation of foreign idolatry and the sexual cultic practices associated with it.

After Hosea and Gomer were married, she bore him a son, whom God instructed to be named Jezreel to commemorate the massacre that Jehu had committed in the valley. Jehu was responsible for overthrowing wicked King Ahaz and his Queen Jezebel who may have been a Chief Temple Priestess of Baal and Astarte. God commanded Jehu to eliminate all of King Ahaz’s family and the priests who had served under Queen Jezebel, which Jehu complied to diligently, which helped stamp out Baal worship briefly. But because Jehu did not follow in the Ways of the Lord and instead turned the people of Israel towards worshipping the calves that were in Bethel, God found Jehu guilty of the bloodshed in Jezreel and would punish the “house of Jehu, and end their Kingdom in the House of Israel”. The naming of Jezreel was a reminder that even the idolatrous Israelites would receive retribution at first. Jezreel’s birth also served as a prophetic countdown, since “in a little while” the last king of the bloodline of Jehu, King Zachariah, who only reigned six months, would be publically assassinated and end Jehu’s family dynasty (ref. 2 Kings 15: 8-10; Hosea 1:4).

Gomer bore a second child, who was not explicitly named as Hosea’s, a daughter named Lo-ruhamah, meaning one “not pitied; not having obtained mercy”. God explains that her name is a prophetic sign that He “will no longer have Mercy upon the House of Israel; but will utterly take them away” from their homeland as slaves. But not all of Israel will experience this terror. Only the Northern Kingdom of Samaria will be taken away as captives at first, since the Southern Kingdom of Judah had continued to serve the Lord faithfully. He would have Mercy upon them and save them by the Lord their God (ref. Hosea 1:6-7). This Prophecy would take about forty years to be fulfilled when the King of Assyria captured and deported the people of Samaria after a long line of bad kings conspiring and assassinating each other.

Gomer’s third child is heavily implied to not be Hosea’s legitimate son, as his name is Loammi, meaning “not my people/family” prophetically symbolizing that because Israel had chosen not to be His People, He would not be their God. Even then, the Lord would not fail to keep His Promise that “the number of the children of Israel [would] be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered”. But, there would come a time in the place where they were told by God that they were not His People, they would be called Sons of the Living God. It would be at this place that the children of Judah and the children of Israel would gather together before being cast out of the land again. This crushing prophecy was recognized by the author of Romans as being fulfilled as Gentiles began to be added to God’s Kingdom, “as God says in Hosea ‘I will call them “My People” who are not My People; and I will call her “My Loved One” who is not My Loved one’ and ‘In the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” there they will be called “Children of the Living God”. After the Tribes of Israel reunited as a single nation, they appointed a King, rather than chose the long-awaited Messiah. For their continued infidelity, they would be cast out of Israel and dispersed throughout the World again after the destruction of the Second Temple, which God likened to the massacre at Jezreel, where temple priests and priestesses to foreign gods and idols were slaughtered for their unfaithfulness to the True God of Israel.

God used Prophet Hosea’s marriage to possible temple prostitute Gomer to prophetically allude to Israel’s continued idolatry as a form of unfaithfulness. Gomer’s children also served as prophetic signs of what Israel was going to experience for their turning away from God. First God would avenge the deaths of the idol worshippers who were killed in Jezreel by Jehu who also turned to cultic practices. Because Jezreel was Gomer’s legitimate son, God would punish the deaths of His Peoples. Gomer’s daughter Lo-ruhamah would not be given pity or mercy as she was the child of Gomer’s whoredoms and accordingly symbolized the Northern Nation of Samaria which would receive no compassion as they were carried away for having turned away from the Lord. Gomer’s final son Loammi, another bastard, was a decree from God that all of Israel would ultimately turn away from Him and they would no longer be His People and He would no longer be their God. Hosea’s prophecy alludes that Jerusalem would be destroyed and Israel scattered again after they reunited as a nation due to their rejection of God.

God’s Prophets are called to proclaim His Message, sometimes at great expense to themselves. Prophet Hosea experienced the anger, embarrassment, and jealousy of having an unfaithful wife mirroring God’s familiarity with Israel’s constant idolatry. Even Hosea’s children were implied to not all be his legitimate heirs, symbolizing how the People of Israel had turned so far away from God as to no longer be His. Ultimately, the burden of prophecy is dwarfed by the consequences of serving gods whose worth carry no weight.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

The Consequences of Prophecy-The Infamous Metropolis & Fleeing Messenger

God’s desire has been for people of all nations and tribes to bring themselves in alignment with His Goodness & Truth. Very often those He longings to save, represent the exact opposite of what we consider to be Good or Just. Whether they are our political opponents, national enemies, or economic rivals, we have a responsibility to extend God’s Message to those we disagree with or detest. Even when prophets turn away from their responsibility to proclaim His Word, God ensures that His Voice is heard.

Jonah, was a prophet of God, who lived during the reign of Jeroboam, ruler of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, after the nation split apart. Prophet Jonah received a Word of the Lord, telling him to go to the great City of Nineveh and preach against it because it had become increasingly wicked.

Nineveh was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire which would later bring Samaria (the Northern Kingdom of Israel) into exile. The Neo-Assyrian Empire had recently won major victories against Samaria’s neighboring country Damascus, which King Jeroboam took advantage of to reestablish his country’s previous borders (ref. 2 Kings 14:26-27). A renewed sense of ultra-nationalism began to take over Samaria after King Jeroboam took back the country’s ancient borders and began to build up its defenses since the people of the region feared that rising political tensions over territory would lead to warfare with Assyria. This fear of war with their neighbors on all sides led to a deep distrust of those who were not Samarians and a desire for God’s Judgment to fall upon the outside nations which were not of the line of Abraham.

Jonah may have experienced this corrupted sense of national pride and actually looked forward to seeing the capital of a competing and threatening nation utterly annihilated. So rather than going to Nineveh as God had commanded him, Jonah instead planned to head away from that direction toward Tarshish, the precious metal rich region that supplied the gold, silver, and copper King Solomon used to build the Temple in Jerusalem (ref. 1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9:21). Jonah went to the port of Joppa where he boarded a boat headed to Tarshish to flee from the Lord and from his responsibility to try to turn the people of Nineveh away from their evil ways.

While the ship was on the water, God sent an intense storm, which was so violent that the ship began to break apart. The sailors on the ship threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship and called out to their gods to save them but the storm continued. The captain of the ship found Jonah sleeping below deck and asked him to appeal to God to stop the storm. The crew cast lots to see who was causing the storm, which fell on Jonah. They demanded an explanation and Jonah explained that the storm was caused by the Lord, the God of Heaven, Who made the Sea and the Dry Land, whom Jonah was fleeing from.

Jonah explained that the sea would calm if they threw him overboard, but they tried to row to shore instead, but the storm only intensified. They prayed to God for forgiveness as they tossed Jonah out of the ship and the raging sea grew calm. Terrified at the power of God, they made sacrifices and vows to the Lord.

But Jonah did not die in the water, but was swallowed by a huge fish that God had provisioned, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights (ref. Jonah 1). Within his aquatic rescue, Jonah composed a prayer of praise for God’s Salvation, despite Jonah’s previous refusal to follow his direction. Seeing his changed heart, God commanded the fish vomit Jonah out onto the dry land (ref. Jonah 2).

God commanded Jonah a second time to “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim My Message”. Jonah obeyed and went to the Assyrian capital, but the city was so large, that it took Jonah an entire day to reach a centralized public space for him to begin to preach the message that “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown”.

Perhaps the people heard stories from the sailors who had thrown Jonah overboard to calm the sea and how the Lord calmed the waters that once threatened to destroy their ship but Prophet Jonah’s message struck utter fear into the hearts of the Ninevites who believed in God and began a fast and put on sackcloth. The entire city participated and even the king took off his royal clothes and declared that the city fast, call urgently on God, give up their evil ways and their violence with the hope that God would bring compassion on the once wicked city.

Upon seeing what they had done and how they turned from their previous evils, God relented and did not bring about the destruction He had threatened (ref. Jonah 3). This angered Jonah, who had desired to see his nation’s enemies crushed. Jonah argued with God, saying that he fled away from Nineveh since he knew that God was gracious, merciful, and compassionate and did not take pleasure in sending calamity on those ignorant of His Law. God responded that it was not just to destroy a city of one hundred twenty thousand without giving them the opportunity to repent and change their ways.

Though Jonah was eager to see the capital city of Nineveh destroyed, God need His Message of Mercy to be spread throughout the region first to give them an opportunity to align their hearts and ways with His. While it is tempting to want to see those across the political aisle to blunder, our economic challengers fail, and nations that threaten us to crumble, we must remember that Judgement belongs to God. A prophecy unspoken will find a way to be voiced.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

The Consequences of Prophecy-Burning the Bones of the Bethel Prophets

Prophecy is not limited by time and simply because a judgement has not occurred during your lifetime, does not mean that it will not be executed as God has commanded. The prophets and priests at Bethel were warned that a champion would come to not only destroy their pagan idols and altars, but that their bones and future worshipers would be burned upon their sacred sites.

King Josiah’s birth had been prophesied several hundred years earlier against the prophets and priests at Bethel; he would stamp out the pagan worship of the country and desecrate their graves. King Josiah was an incredibly young boy when he became king of Judah, the Southern Kingdom of Israel. But even at the age of eight, he was already beginning to differentiate himself from his fathers, who had turned away from worshipping the Lord, and instead “began to seek the God of his father David” and “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed the ways of his father David, not turning to the right or to the left” (ref. 2 Chronicles 34:1-2; 2 Kings 22:1-2).

When Josiah was twenty years old, he ordered a great purging of Judah and Jerusalem of their high places, Asherah poles, and idols. Josiah destroyed the altars of Baal, cut down their incense altars, and smashed the Asherah poles and idols. He took the destroyed remains and ruins and placed them over the graves of those who had sacrificed at these sites. King Josiah even retrieved the bones of the priests who had conducted worship on these altars and had their remains burned to dust upon their sacred platforms (ref. 2 Chronicles 34:3-7).

King Josiah began to further purify the land and the Temple during the eighteenth year of his reign and had major repair and restoration work done on the Temple. The men in charge of the reconstruction project gave the money collected for the Temple repairs to Hilkiah the High Priest. Hilkiah divided the money amongst the laborers to pay for their services and to buy required materials. The workers labored so faithfully that no records were kept of the expenditures because their righteous hearts prevented them from being dishonest in the managing of the Temple’s expenses (2 Chronicles 34:8-12; 2 Kings 22:3-7).

During the reconstruction, High Priest Hilkiah found a copy of the Book of the Law of the Lord, who gave it to Shapham the Scribe. Shapham the Scribe presented and read the Book of the Law to King Josiah and Josiah tore his clothes in anguish recognizing that the vengeance of the Lord would fall upon Judah because his father and grandfather had turned the nation towards corrupt pagan worship rather than keeping the Word of the Lord (ref. 2 Chronicles 34: 14-21; 2 Kings 22:8-13).

King Josiah sent an envoy to Huldah the Prophetess to ask her to inquire of the Lord.

Huldah prophesied: “Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the King of Judah:”

“Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched.”

“Regarding the King of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which though hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when you heard His Words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbled yourself before me, and tore your clothes, and wept before me; I have heard you as well”.

“Behold, you will be buried with your fathers, and you will go to your grave in peace, and you will not see the destruction that I will bring upon this nation and its citizens” (ref. 2 Chronicles 34:22-28; 2 Kings 22:14-20).

After hearing the words of Huldah the Prophetess, King Josiah gathered the elders of Judah and Jerusalem into the House of the Lord and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart and soul, and to perform the words of the covenant. And he had all who were present declare their devotion to serving God solely and keeping His Covenant, which the nation did as long as Josiah lived (ref. 2 Chronicles 34: 29-33; 2 Kings 23:1-3).

And Josiah began another cleansing of the nation and destroyed all the abominations within the country starting with the vessels of the worship of Baal which remained in the Temple. The citizens set out to cut down the Asherah poles and the high places and defiled Topheth which was where worshipers had passed their sons and daughters through the fire to Molech. Josiah destroyed the places of worship that King Solomon had built for his foreign wives.

Most importantly, he slaughtered the priests which continued to offer incense to other gods and burned their corpses and the bones of their past priests and prophets on their altars before being ground to a fine dust. And the altar at Bethel was crushed like the bones of the priest and prophets burned upon it.

And King Josiah died never seeing the destruction that Judah would experience for their previous worship of false idols.

Because Josiah intensely desired to follow the Lord, he not only used his leadership position to guide others as an example of serving God wholly, but also removed the false worship his forefathers had introduced to lead the people astray. King Josiah made bold public statements and completely changed how he ran his kingdom when confronted with the reality of what happens to a nation that turns away from God and His Commandments. Most importantly, Josiah fulfilled the prophecy concerning the destruction of the altar at Bethel and the restoring of Judah to the One True God.

While the nation of Judah had been free to operate freely without full repercussions during their long period of idolatrous worship, their coming exile was foreshadowed with the mass slaughtering of the false prophets and priests of Bethel and the destruction of the altar. But even those who had died hundreds of years ago were unable to escape retribution as their tombs were desecrated and their bones burned upon the very altar that they worshipped upon. Modern defilers of His Name will in time have their names, reputations, and memories tarnished and destroyed. God’s Words do not fail and His Prophecies and Punishments will be executed even outside a lifetime.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator